The Hollywood Reporter interviews Breitbart News’ John Nolte about the entertainment industry’s denial of how its stars’ attacks on conservatives hurt films’ bottom lines.
From the Hollywood Reporter:
When The Hollywood Reporter and the Los Angeles Times analyzed the underperformance of Steve Jobs, there was no mention of star Seth Rogen’s “F— you @RealBenCarson” tweet, an omission that offended John Nolte, film reviewer and editor at large at Brietbart.com, a conservative news outlet. Nolte has been making the case for years that the political discourse of actors matters to box office (a theory apparently validated by a THR poll). Nolte criticized THR for ignoring Rogen’s tweet, and the reviewer is now getting his say on the matter, while also weighing in on a boycott effort against The Hateful Eight over anti-police brutality remarks from director Quentin Tarantino.
Is there any evidence that conservatives shunned Steve Jobs over Rogen’s tweet?
Hollywood is the only business I know of that doesn’t worry about what the face of their product says. If Mr. Whipple or Ronald McDonald said Christians are Nazis and people who oppose gay marriage are evil and f— Ben Carson, the people in those industries would worry about selling less toilet paper and hamburgers. But in Hollywood, Mr. Whipple — in this case Seth Rogen — can attack 50 percent of the customers, and it’s believed it doesn’t affect the bottom line.
So then, how much did Rogen’s tweet cost at the box office?
I don’t know. But it’s just anti-science to think it didn’t hurt the movie. I have more evidence than the box-office experts have when it comes to theories about what hurt the movie. What they believe was already baked into the prediction. I’m talking about an event that happened between their predictions and the flop. It’s ridiculous that these experts aren’t saying, “Gee, everyone predicted it would do this much, but it only did this much. Everyone knew about the platform release, and that Steve Jobs was oversaturated, and about this and about that, and then it bombed, so what happened between the prediction and the bomb?” But nobody is asking that. I’ll tell you what happened — Seth Rogen told one of the most popular men in the country to f— off. That’s relevant.
Wasn’t Aaron Sorkin’s involvement enough to discourage conservatives?
Not if you look at his box-office record, especially of late. From what I saw, the only partisan, customer-insulting event around Steve Jobs was Rogen’s ugly tweet. Too often, conservatives have paid good money to be insulted. There are too many alternatives now. Hollywood no longer has a monopoly on escapism. Video games and alternative media and DVD collections actually empower conservatives — empowers them not to hate Hollywood, but to hate Hollywood back.
Any other reason you were irritated that THR and the L.A. Times didn’t mention Rogen’s tweet?
Because they’re part of the system where the correct-thinking stars are protected. The idea that Rogen hurt the box office would be a demerit against him, and there would be a backlash againstTHR. There’s this mindset in Hollywood where they don’t want to believe they need to stop their stars from saying these vicious, partisan things. That would be a big cultural change in Hollywood, so there’s this denial.
A backlash against THR? How?
If you guys say that Rogen hurt the movie, his people would come at you hard. You’d be stepping off the thought plantation. There are things you can say in Hollywood and things you can’t.
What can and can’t you say in Hollywood?
You can say that Tom Cruise jumping on a couch hurt the box office, but you can’t say that Seth Rogen insulting 50 percent of his customers with a nasty political tweet hurt the box office.
Read the rest of the interview here.
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